Canada drops in gender equity rankings for 2007

The (World Economic) Forum compared four areas: differences between men and women’s salaries, access to education, political representation and health including life expectancy…Canada fell back four spots to 18th.

I suppose one consolation is we’re still ahead of the US, which fell 8 spots to 31st. Still, the fact we’re apparently regressing when it comes to this should be a bit concerning. Political representation or lack thereof for women here is not a surprising one – that has long been a feature of our current electoral system, and it will not be fixed until that is addressed. The inequity between men and women’s salaries has been raised for quite awhile , but still a long way to go in that regard, apparently. What concerns me the most is the access to education part of the equation. That should be an equal opportunity for all to participate, and if it is not, then something needs to be done to help address that.

The other question raised is whether its a coincidence the rankings show a drop in Canada’s place in the world since the Conservatives came to power. The cutting of many women’s programs and so on may not directly correlate to this drop, but it certainly doesn’t help improve it.

7 comments to Canada drops in gender equity rankings for 2007

<em>There are those who would want Canada to compete with countries such as Norway and Finland with regards to gender equity. </em>

Sure. But Scott should say that, rather than give the impression
(to the casual reader) that things are getting worse in this country.

I’ve always believed that it’s a mistake by advocacy groups (environmental,
feminist, poverty, whatever) to be so relentlessly alarmist. These groups
would seemingly rather lose a limb than admit – just now and then – that
something has actually improved.

Eventually people get tired of the Chicken Little routine, the unending
naysaying. And they lose faith in these groups to given an honest and balanced
appraisal of the situation.

If these groups were a little more even handed, touting the successes as
much as the failures, and giving congratulations when things go well,
they would garner more support in the long run.

I suppose these groups believe, however, that the best way to get support is to scare
people with endless rants of doom and gloom.

Canadian women have failed as ‘women’ and now they are failing as ‘men’. I suppose now is the propitious time to enforce gender equality so that women will get their fair share of power and opportunity to show what they can do if given a fair chance.

From the actual report (unspun by the media)
‘All countries in the top 20 made progress relative to their scores last year – some more so than others. Latvia (13) and Lithuania (14) made the biggest advances among the top 20, gaining six and seven places respectively, driven by smaller gender gaps in labour force participation and wages.
… Canada (#18, 14 last year) continues to show a similar performance as that of last year, ranking well on economic participation and opportunity (13) and educational attainment (26), and performing above average on political empowerment (36) and health and survival (51)…’
details:http://www.weforum.org/pdf/gendergap/ggg07_canada.pdf